The present invention relates to touchscreen interfaces of devices and more specifically, to management of a touchscreen interface to compensate for screen damage.
Many mobile or cell phones and tablets use touchscreens for the main user interface for their functionality. Touchscreens are also provided on terminals such as game consoles, personal computers, satellite navigation devices, eBooks, etc.
Touchscreens are electronic visual displays that a user can control though touch and gestures by one or more fingers, a stylus or pen.
A wide variety of touchscreen technologies have been developed and this is a field of continuing rapid development. Touchscreen technologies include: resistive touchscreens using electrically-resistive layers separated by a thin space; capacitive touchscreen panels consisting of an insulator such as glass coated with a transparent conductor; surface acoustic wave technology touchscreens using ultrasonic waves that pass over the touchscreen panel; infrared grid touchscreens using an array of infrared light emitting diodes and photo detector pairs; etc.
All touchscreens are susceptible to damage. Mobile devices are also increasingly being used in a wide range of situations, which increases their risk of damage. Damage may result in only a portion of the screen being rendered unusable.
Replacement of touchscreens is possible but may be inconvenient and expensive. Therefore, a temporary or cost effective solution to a partially damaged screen is needed in order to enable a user to carry on using the device effectively until the damage is resolved by screen replacement or repair.
In addition, there may be some damage in the mechanism below the screen which replacement of the screen may not resolve. In such cases, a solution for using the remaining functional area of the screen may be needed.
Therefore, there is a need in the art to address the aforementioned problems.